Building communities
Families dine together Sept 24
Family Day is a promotion which reminds parents that it’s important for a family to eat dinner together.
Designated as the last Monday of September, this year’s Sept. 24 Family Day is again being sponsored in Livingston County by CASA Prevention Services.
CASA Healthy Communities Coalition Coordinator Susan Bell pointed out that her agency has a natural interest the ideals Family Day represents. Studies correlate the habit of eating together as a family with a lower likelihood of the children in the family getting involved in smoking, alcohol and drugs.
“It truly translates into all parts of family life. It’s connecting with your kids and maintaining that open communication, because dinnertime can be a time when people have conversations,” said Bell.
The important thing is to eat together on Family Day, whether the meal takes place at home or in a restaurant. Six Livingston County restaurants are participating in Family Day by offering special pricing of one kind or another to encourage the entire family to come out and eat. They include the American Hotel in Lima, Countryside Restaurant in Avon, Minnehan’s in Lakeville, Geneseo Family Restaurant in Geneseo, Leisure’s in Lakeville, and Peppermints in Avon.
The original Family Day concept started at Columbia University’s Center on Alcohol and Substance Abuse and has grown into a nationally recognized event.
“We are bringing it home to Livingston County,” said Bell. “It fits in with the prevention we try to do, strengthening families and helping kids make right choices.”
CASA Prevention Services raises consciousness of the day among young school children by sponsoring theme coloring contests for second graders and essay contests for fifth graders in each and every school in the county. After Family Day, second grade and fifth grade local winners will be selected at each school, among whom three county winners are then selected, including a grand prize winner.
The grand prize will be a ‘Family Night Out’ including dinner and a movie. A parallel ‘Family Night Out’ grand prize will be selected from among post card contestants. To enter the contest, the family only needs to describe on the post card how they spent Family Day.
